With the army limited by the Treaty of Versailles to one hundred thousand soldiers, its leaders watched anxiously as membership in the SA surpassed three million men by the beginning of 1934. [75] Lutze did little to assert the SA's independence in the coming years, and the organization lost its power in Germany. The atmosphere of uncertainty following the Reichstag Fire secured many voters for the Nazi party. Several of Hitler's lieutenants feared Rhm's growing power and restlessness, as did Hitler. Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. [33] On 28 June Hitler went to Essen to attend the wedding celebration and reception of Josef Terboven; from there he called Rhm's adjutant at Bad Wiessee and ordered SA leaders to meet with him on 30 June at 11:00. The speed and scale of the reshuffle caused it to be associated by its critics with the 1934 Night of the Long Knives in Nazi Germany . Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Rhm the so-called Rhm Putsch. First was his old comrade Ernst Rhm, chief of staff of the SA (Sturmabteilung; German: Assault Division), or Brownshirts. On 15 April 1945, Bergen-Belsen camp was liberated by the British Army. The destiny of our country is at stake. Political instability in the Weimar Republic, Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr, Strength and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic. Until then, Lippert had been one of the few executioners of the purge to evade trial. Centuries of jurisprudence proscribing extrajudicial killings were swept aside. [25] During the summit in Venice, Mussolini upbraided Hitler for tolerating the violence, hooliganism and homosexuality of the SA, which Mussolini stated were ruining Hitler's good reputation all over the world. Many of the prisoners were tortured and abused. The Night of the Long Knives was "an act of carnage" which had come out of the blue. "[26] According to his memoirs, von Papen, a Catholic aristocrat with ties to army and industry, privately threatened to resign if Hitler did not act. Goering, Himmler, and Heydrich, Hitler's new head of internal security for the SS, got together and drew up a list of opponents to Hitler's new Government, while Goebbels publicly accused Ernst Rhm of planning a takeover or 'Putsch'. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party Your Excellency has thrice before saved Germany from foundering, at Tannenberg, at the end of the War and at the moment of your election as Reich President. Refusing to take his own life, he was shot on 1 July 1934 by two SS guards. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet, one-third of the total. Answer (1 of 5): if you were Ernst Rohm, or former conniving Chancellor Gen von Schleicher or his wife, the consequences were terminal. The Night of the Long Knives was the term given to the process whereby Hitler, in 1934, purged the Nazi Party of all those who were a threat to Hitler. The army almost unanimously applauded the Night of the Long Knives, even though the generals Kurt von Schleicher and Ferdinand von Bredow were among the victims. The law needed two thirds of the Reichstag to vote for it to pass. Precise details remain unknown, but the army is believed to have promised to support Hitler as head of state after Hindenburg's death in return for . [22] Himmler named his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. During the 1920s and 1930s, the SA functioned as a private militia used by Hitler to intimidate rivals and disrupt the meetings of competing political parties, especially those of the Social Democrats and the Communists. By some estimates, as many as 1,000 were rounded up, never to be seen again. Also known as the "brownshirts" or "stormtroopers," the SA became notorious for their street battles with the Communists. Most officers are too old and have to be replaced by young ones. Hitler's entire life was one of making key-life and death-strategic decisions, successfully. "[74], Hitler named Viktor Lutze to replace Rhm as head of the SA. Despite this, on the whole, Gleichschaltung was largely successful. persecution Lippert was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.[50]. The murders of SA leaders were also intended to improve the image of the Hitler government with a German public that was increasingly critical of thuggish SA tactics. A combat veteran of World War I, Rhm had recently boasted that he would execute 12 men in retaliation for the killing of any stormtrooper. Gleichschaltung was applied across every possible aspect of government policy. This event reputedly occurred during the fifth century Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, when Vortigern and the British leaders were invited to discuss peace and the Saxon leader Hengist commanded his men to draw their Seax (the infamous long knives) and massacre the unarmed Britons. During the years of the rise of the Nazi Party, the SA had been instrumental in helping the party to gain support. It's helped us to become more accustomed to acts of grim self-interested political butchery; but for those witnessing these events as they happened, they were simply unprecedented. The process primarily took place between 1933-1934. Blomberg, Hitler and Goebbels. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Rhm. By the end of May 1934, Hitler had been chancellor for 16 . . The Gestapo arrested and later executed Papen's close associate Edgar Jung, the author of Papen's Marburg speech, and disposed of his body by dumping it in a ditch. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). This decree suspended the democratic aspects of the Weimar Republic and declared a state of emergency. [12] Although nicknamed the "Rubber Lion" by some of his critics in the army for his devotion to Hitler, Blomberg was not a Nazi, and therefore represented a bridge between the army and the party. Each resource gives suggested teaching strategies and are differentiated . Hitler and Himmler unleashed the Gestapo against old enemies, as well. On 30 April 1945, Hitler took his own life in his bunker underneath the Reich chancellery in Berlin. The Liberals' future leader, Jeremy Thorpe, mocked Macmillan by observing . [64] One retired captain, Erwin Planck, seemed to realize this: "If you look on without lifting a finger", he said to his friend, General Werner von Fritsch, "you will meet the same fate sooner or later. One key example of an event posed as moderate was the Night of Long Knives. In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. [28] Hitler had hesitated for months in moving against Rhm, in part due to Rhm's visibility as the leader of a national militia with millions of members. [20] Although Schleicher was in fact unimportant by 1934, increasingly wild rumours that he was scheming with Rhm to re-enter the corridors of power helped stoke the sense of crisis. At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds,[b][c][d] with high estimates running from 700 to 1,000. Others killed included Gregor Strasser, a former Nazi who had angered Hitler by resigning from the party in 1932, and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, the former Bavarian state commissioner who had helped crush the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The loyalty of the SS men would prove useful to both when Hitler finally chose to move against Rhm and the SA. [19] Schleicher criticized the current Hitler cabinet, while some of Schleicher's followers such as General Ferdinand von Bredow and Werner von Alvensleben started passing along lists of a new Hitler cabinet in which Schleicher would become vice-chancellor, Rhm minister of defence, Heinrich Brning foreign minister and Gregor Strasser minister of national economy. The Night of Long Knives occurred on June 30, 1934. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. "[14], Despite such hostility between the brownshirts and the regular army, Blomberg and others in the military saw the SA as a source of raw recruits for an enlarged and revitalized army. "[35] Having heard nothing in the allotted time, they returned to Rhm's cell at 14:50 to find him standing, with his bare chest puffed out in a gesture of defiance. Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived opponents of Hitler. [21], As a means of isolating Rhm, on 20 April 1934, Gring transferred control of the Prussian political police (Gestapo) to Himmler, who, Gring believed, could be counted on to move against Rhm. He was now a dictator. Moreover, it was not just the Reichswehr that viewed the SA as a threat. [l] Luise Solmitz, a Hamburg schoolteacher, echoed the sentiments of many Germans when she cited Hitler's "personal courage, decisiveness and effectiveness" in her private diary. Omissions? The Nazi Party used the atmosphere of panic to their advantage, encouraging anti-communism. On 25 April 1933, the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities was issued, restricting the number of Jewish students. Hence, the Freikorps were in opposition to the new Weimar Republic, which was born as a result of the November Revolution, and whose founders were contemptuously called "November criminals". Upon returning to Berlin, Goebbels telephoned Gring at 10:00 with the codeword Kolibri to let loose the execution squads on the rest of their unsuspecting victims. Hitler saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his newly gained political power. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The Nazis also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition legally. Complete a Diamond 9 of the consequences of the Night of the Long Knives. Gring alone had over a thousand people arrested. By June 1934 this had grown to over 3,000,000 members. He then told Hitler that Hindenburg was close to declaring martial law and turning the government over to the Reichswehr if Hitler did not take immediate steps against Rhm and his brownshirts. The SS found Breslau SA leader Edmund Heines in bed with an unidentified eighteen-year-old male SA senior troop leader. [23] Himmler envied the independence and power of the SA, although by this time he and Heydrich had already begun restructuring the SS from a bodyguard formation for Nazi leaders (and a subset of the SA) into its own independent elite corps, one loyal to both himself and Hitler. [4] The violent confrontations between the two contributed to the destabilization of the Weimar Republic. [82] However, the term was soon adopted by the Nazis themselves to invoke what they saw as justifiable and necessary measures taken by Germanic peoples against an enemy. 2 Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews, 1933-1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975), 82. I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders in this treason, and I further gave the order to cauterise down to the raw flesh the ulcers of this poisoning of the wells in our domestic life. [38] Joseph Goebbels, who had been with Hitler at Bad Wiessee, set the final phase of the plan in motion. On 11 April 1945, the US army liberated Buchenwald camp. , issuing the Act for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the 7 April 1933. The day after the fire, Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. [15] In January 1934, Rhm presented Blomberg with a memorandum demanding that the SA replace the regular army as the nation's ground forces, and that the Reichswehr become a training adjunct to the SA.[16]. This act was reinforced by the German Civil Service code of 26 January 1937, which retired any judges or judicial official who would not intervene in cases and rule in favour of the Nazis. Within weeks of Rhms death, Hitler made an attempt to settle the question of union with Austria through simple violence. And realize that this is Germany that was a Rechtsstaat, the Germans always say, a state with laws. In his speech to the Reichstag on 13 July justifying his actions, Hitler denounced Schleicher for conspiring with Rhm to overthrow the government; Hitler alleged both were traitors working in the pay of France. isabellaaellis. Following Hitlers appointment as chancellor the Nazis were finally in a position of power. It also provided a legal grounding for the Nazis, as the German courts and cabinet quickly swept aside centuries of legal prohibition against extrajudicial killings to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. The primary instruments of Hitler's action, which carried out most of the killings, were the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary force under Himmler and its Security Service (SD), and Gestapo (secret police) under Reinhard Heydrich. Over the next two months, they launched themselves into an intense election campaign. ", "The most general theory that National Socialism was a revolution of the lower middle class is defensible but inadequate. Hitler formally adopted this title in April 1942, thus placing himself above the reach of the law de jure and de facto. 89.93% voted in favour of Hitler. Rhm was given the nickname "The Machine Gun King of Bavaria" in the early 1920s, since he was responsible for storing and issuing illegal machine guns to the Bavarian Freikorps units. Corrections? [75] Hitler expressly told him to stop SA funds from being spent on limousines and banquets, which he considered evidence of SA extravagance. Dachau consolidate Because their plans for the army conflicted, Rhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense. While Rhm's homosexuality did not endear him to conservatives, they were more concerned about his political ambitions. This topic will explore how the Nazis managed to eliminate their opposition and [56] Germany's legal establishment further capitulated to the regime when the country's leading legal scholar, Carl Schmitt, wrote an article defending Hitler's 13 July speech. . Hitler arrived and personally placed Rhm and other high ranking SA leaders under arrest. This fear was info)), or the Rhm purge (German: Rhm-Putsch), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: Unternehmen Kolibri), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. The result was that it was made Hitler the undisputed leader of the Nazis and by extension Germany. pardoned [e] Over the next few months, during the so-called Gleichschaltung, Hitler dispensed with the need for the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic as a legislative body[f] and eliminated all rival political parties in Germany, so that by the middle of 1933 the country had become a one-party state under his direction and control. Now that the NSDAP had seized the reins of power in Germany, he said, it was time to consolidate its control. Although many Germans approached the official news of the events as described by Joseph Goebbels with a great deal of scepticism, many others took the regime at its word, and believed that Hitler had saved Germany from a descent into chaos. [35] Goebbels emphasised this aspect in subsequent propaganda justifying the purge as a crackdown on moral turpitude. Some of those executed by Hitler were once considered close allies and friends. No one in the SA spoke more loudly for "a continuation of the German revolution" (as one prominent stormtrooper, Edmund Heines, put it) than Rhm himself. If passed, the law would establish the conditions needed for dictatorial rule. [49] In 1957, the German authorities tried Lippert in Munich for Rhm's murder. [48] Eicke and Lippert then shot Rhm, killing him. [35] Papen was unceremoniously arrested at the Vice-Chancellery, despite his insistent protests that he could not be arrested in his position as Vice-Chancellor. In Rhm's view, President Hindenburg's appointment of Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933 had brought the Nazi Party to power, but had left unfulfilled the party's larger goals. If that was indeed true then, as a legal matter, the law was entirely unnecessary and redundant. By 1935, over 1,600 newspapers had been closed. Other sets by this creator. "[46], Some SA members died saying "Heil Hitler" because they believed that an anti-Hitler SS plot had led to their execution. From the airport they drove to the Bavarian Interior Ministry, where they assembled the leaders of an SA rampage that had taken place in city streets the night before. 15 Apr 2023. Home Explore. In August 1932 there were approximately 445,000 members of the SA. isabellaaellis. Local governments proved more difficult to infiltrate, and even at the end of 1945 only 60% of local mayors were Nazi Party members. He asked, "What would people have said if I had done such a thing? Hitler announced that he would occupy this new role. [76], According to Albert Speer, "the Right, represented by the President, the Minister of Justice, and the generals, lined up behind Hitler the strong left wing of the party, represented chiefly by the SA, was eliminated. of democracy. The Night of Long Knives, one of most noteworthy events during Hitler's rule, was a purge that occurred on the 30th June 1934. . It was named Der Fhrer schtzt das Recht ("The Fhrer Upholds the Law"). [41] Several leaders of the disbanded Catholic Centre Party were also murdered in the purge. The Night of the Long Knives, in June 1934, saw the wiping out of the SA's leadership and others who had angered Hitler in the recent past in Nazi Germany. coalition By early 1934, this vision directly conflicted with Hitler's plan to consolidate power and expand the Reichswehr. It is otherwise known as coordination or Nazification. They would later reopen it to liquidate the d ghetto. Officially 85; estimates range up to 1,000. They had placed many in the first The Night of the Long Knives was a helping event in Hitler becoming a dictator. Reviews Something went wrong, please try again later. The Foreign Office even complained of instances where brownshirts manhandled foreign diplomats. She even compared him to Frederick the Great, the 18th-century king of Prussia.[2]. Blomberg and many of his fellow officers were recruited from the Prussian nobility and regarded the SA as a plebeian rabble that threatened the army's traditional high status in German society. On 13 July 1934 the Reichstag More than a thousand high ranking SA officials (Hitler's militant Nazi storm troopers), including several of Hitler's oldest affiliates were . coup This decree gave the Nazis a legal basis for the Under pressure from Hitler, Rhm reluctantly signed a pledge stating that he recognised the supremacy of the Reichswehr over the SA. On 7 April 1943, the SS shut down the Chemno death camp for the first time. On 27 February 1933, as the campaign moved into its final, frantic days, theReichstag, the German Parliament building, was set on fire and burnt down. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It was a mass murder planned by the SS for the SA and their members. Excellency, save Germany for the fourth time! In this photo, Rhm is talking to a group of SA men, who appear to be listening intently. The Centre Partys vote was crucial. Paul von Hindenburg was still alive and in office and, if he wished, could have stopped all of Hitlers plans by handing power over to the Reichswehr. The Night of Long Knives was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from the 30 June 1934 to the 2 July 1934. The humbling of the SA ended the threat it had posed to the army but, by standing by Hitler during the purge, the army bound itself more tightly to the Nazi regime. On 25 June, General Werner von Fritsch placed the Reichswehr on the highest level of alert. Many of those that were harassed by the SA and the SS or imprisoned in camps were terrified to speak out about their ordeal fearing that they would be further abused or re-imprisoned. The Night of the Long Knives. Night of the Long Knives, in German history, purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler on June 30, 1934. Wiskemann, Elizabeth, "The Night of the Long Knives", This page was last edited on 9 April 2023, at 02:08. President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. [k] Signed into law by Hitler, Grtner, and Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, the "Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defence" retroactively legalized the murders committed during the purge. Hitler ordered him, as one prominent historian described it, to put an end to "homosexuality, debauchery, drunkenness, and high living" in the SA. [66], Rumours about the Night of the Long Knives rapidly spread. [40] Those not immediately executed were taken back to the Leibstandarte barracks at Lichterfelde, given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad. Hitler announced to those present that the SA would act as an auxiliary to the Reichswehr, not the other way around. Some of Hitlers other enemies were also murdered, including the last chancellor of the Weimar Republic, Kurt von Schleicher; Gregor Strasser, who until 1932 had been second only to Hitler in the Nazi Party; Bavarian ex-separatist Gustav von Kahr; conservative critic Edgar Jung; and Catholic professor Erich Klausener. [i] Rhm, as one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party, had participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by Hitler to seize power by force in 1923. . "[55] Reich Justice Minister Franz Grtner, a conservative who had been Bavarian Justice Minister in the years of the Weimar Republic, demonstrated his loyalty to the new regime by drafting the statute, which added a legal veneer to the purge. [37] Sepp Dietrich received orders from Hitler for the Leibstandarte to form an "execution squad" and go to Stadelheim Prison where certain SA leaders were being held. In British politics, the " Night of the Long Knives " was a major Cabinet reshuffle that took place on 13 July 1962. On the 30 January 1933 Hitler was appointed as chancellor of the Weimar Republic. The History Learning Site, 9 Mar 2015. Civil Service The leaders of the SA were ordered to attend a meeting at a hotel in Bad Wiesse, Bavaria. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. Hitler entitled the purge the 'Night of the Long Knives' - a reference to the lyrics from a popular Nazi song. Hess, present among the assembled, even volunteered to shoot the "traitors". Shortly after Hindenburgs death, Hitler announced that offices of the chancellor and the president were to be combined to create one position, the Fhrer and chancellor. This photograph was taken the same day, showing the Reichstag still burning. On the 2 May 1933 trade unions were banned. By the end of it, Hitler's party had been shaken by a major crisis, and the long knives were put quietly back in their box while all the Fhrer kept out was a wary ear. He left Neudeck with the intention of both destroying Rhm and settling scores with old enemies. Kurt von Schleicher's stepdaughter received 250 marks per month up to the age of 21, and the son of General von Bredow received a monthly allowance of 150 marks.[59]. This continued when a young Dutchcommunist, Van der Lubbe was arrested for the crime. The widows of the murdered SA leaders received between 1,000 and 1,600 marks a month, depending on the rank of the murdered person. 8. ", "The names of eighty-five victims [exist], only fifty of them SA men. On the 28 February 1933, President Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. Following the Enabling Law, much of this harassment and imprisonment was legal. In the judicial system specifically, this act removed any judges that were deemed non-compliant with Nazi laws or principles. [69] The memo asked that Hindenburg instead create a directorate to rule Germany, comprising the Chancellor (who was not named), General Werner von Fritsch as Vice-Chancellor, Hammerstein as Minister of Defense, the Minister for National Economy (also unnamed), and Rudolf Nadolny as Foreign Minister. The army's support for the purge, however, would have far-reaching consequences for the institution. He lifted his arm in the Nazi salute and called out "Heil Hitler, I love Germany. The long term impact brought forth by the consequences or legacy of the Nazi party included a population decrease and an increase in deaths. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Rhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". "A very calm and easy going mailman," the diarist Victor Klemperer wrote, "who is not at all National Socialist, said, 'Well, he simply sentenced them.'" retrospectively However, it did so under the guise of legality, and protecting the German people and their democracy. Wilhelm Miklas, and recalled his minister from Vienna. The support of respected individuals such as von Papen and Hindenburgs son, Oskar von Hindenburg, gave the Nazis further legitimacy for these actions. Only the SPD opposed it. [25] While Mussolini's criticism did not win Hitler over to acting against the SA, it helped push him in that direction.[25]. You give Hitler power and time by voting HITLER!. As the leader of the SA, Rhm was seen as a threat to Hitlers power. 25 terms. The undersigned Generals and senior officers swear to preserve to the last breath their loyalty to you and the Fatherland. of any opponents, who were be framed as traitors to the republic. The Night of the Long Knives. The Nazis had the support of the DNVP, and had banned the communist party, the KPD, from attending. [24] Before Hitler left, and at the request of Presidential State Secretary Otto Meiner, Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath ordered the German Ambassador to Italy Ulrich von Hassell without Hitler's knowledge to ask Mussolini to tell Hitler that the SA was blackening Germany's good name. However, there were also other events which helped Hitler in achieving the position of a dictator. Plenary: Form a circle of 6-8 students and paraphrase passport everything you have learnt about the Night of the Long Knives. Once the Enabling Law was in place, the Nazis could bypass the Reichstag and rule by decree seemingly creating laws that stabilised Germany and got rid of its internal enemies. "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. On 17 June 1934, conservative demands for Hitler to act came to a head when Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, confidant of the ailing Hindenburg, gave a speech at Marburg University warning of the threat of a "second revolution. [69] The memo went on to demand that Hindenburg punish those responsible, and criticized Blomberg for his outspoken support of the murders of Schleicher and Bredow. The Nazis improvised. Gring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic. To a lesser extent, the Sturmabteilung (SA), a Nazi paramilitary organization, remained somewhat autonomous within the party. Captain Ernst Rhm of the Reichswehr served as the liaison with the Bavarian Freikorps. President Hindenburg died at the age of 87 on 2 August 1934. By the end of May 1934, Hitler had been chancellor for 16 months and dictator for 14 (under the Enabling Act of March 24, 1933), but two obstacles to his absolute power remained. The SA traced its dramatic rise in numbers in part to the onset of the Great Depression, when many German citizens lost both their jobs and their faith in traditional institutions.
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